Hometown heroes: Local ACC scholarship winner, coaching milestone approaches, CVCC unbeaten with help of local products

By Richard Walker

Former Ashbrook High standout British Brooks went to the University of North Carolina in the summer of 2018 as a recruited walkon football player.

On Monday at a team meeting, Tar Heels coach Mack Brown made Brooks a scholarship player.

A 2018 Ashbrook High graduate, Brooks has 34 carries for 166 yards and one touchdown rushing and had made 11 tackles as a special teams standout. Brooks was given the top special teams honor at December’s season-ending UNC banquet and picked up a career-high 53 yards rushing in his first career start for the Tar Heels in the Orange Bowl.

Coaching milestone
Dip Metress, a 1988 Belmont Abbey graduate and former Crusaders men’s basketball coach, enters the weekend two wins shy of 500 head coaching victories.

Metress, who guided the Abbey to a 134-93 record in eight seasons from 1996 to 2004, is in his 17th year at Augusta and has guided the Jaguars to a 364-139 record, including 5-3 this season.

Entering Saturday’s 3:30 p.m. game at North Georgia, Metress has 498 overall coaching victories. Upcoming games for Augusta are Feb. 3 at home against Francis Marion and Feb. 6 at home against Young Harris.

College basketball

Catawba Valley Community College is off to fast men’s and women’s basketball starts with the help of former local products.

The Red Hawks’ women’s team is 2-0 after Thursday night’s 87-63 win over Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute with freshman guard Kenzley Dunlap (2020 Forestview graduate) averaging 12 points and four rebounds per game. Also for CVCC, Nikkyana McCaskill (Forestview 2015) is a second-year assistant coach.

The Red Hawks’ men’s team also is 2-0 with the help of sophomores John Bean (East Lincoln 2019) and Jaylen Prioleau (Piedmont Community Charter 2019) and freshmen Myles Adams (East Lincoln 2020) and Demetrius Washington (Mountain Island Charter 2020).